Family Time

I had a great 10 days with my mom. It was nice to show her around Uden and she put a mommy’s touch on my house. My carnet (travel documents) is all in order now, so we are good for one more year! Sadly, I have no pictures as my camera decided it didn’t want to work anymore.

Training has come leaps and bounds over the last little bit. I am sitting on cloud 9! I am so pleased with my pony. The one tempis are confirmed now. I had 22 the other day, all straight. My mom almost jumped in the air she was so happy to see that we are finally getting them. Since we only need 15, and I can get 22 or more, we just have them stored in reserve. Other than the tempi changes, we are starting to ride the lines from the test, slowly putting things together.

Vitall is still green with the transitions from piaffe to passage. Passage to piaffe is effortless, but when you ask him to go out he thinks he needs to piaffe more instead of moving forward, and he is sitting a little too much, so he gets a bit stuck because he isn’t strong enough yet to carry it that “deep.” So, we have been working on keeping the piaffe a bit more forward, so he is able to make the transition. It’s been a big learning curve the last little while, but It feels great. My mom was really pleased she saw how much Vitall and I have grown into a team together and I told her it really feels that way.

Over the next bit we will be continuing to work on the piaffe and passage transitions and the next step with the tempi changes is to start riding them on the diagonal. Riding them on the rail is like having safety nets on either side, and now we are graduating away from our safety lines and taking them mainstream. I’m planning to ride the future test July 1st that will be our first GP! I’m nervous and excited.

Also, last weekend I went to a big festival called 7th Sunday. It was fantastic – one of the best nights of my life, but again my feet decided different the next day. We were dancing from 4:00 to 12:00 – the music was super. It was all of us from the stables together in the sun enjoying the music. It was a nice break to just be silly and let loose a bit for all of us. The fireworks show at the end was incredible. It amazes me how serious they take their music festivals here in Holland. There is one almost every weekend. I guess all I can say is they certainly know how to have fun.

Anky will be away over the next five days in Kiev, and she also has a clinic, so Vitall will get to go for a hack in the woods (weather permitting) then we can also work a little bit on our own. I have switched gyms recently and I am much happier at the new one, which is closer to my house. I have my first personal training session tomorrow. Hopefully I won’t be too sore, but I’m looking forward to having my butt kicked. I manage well working out on my own, but every now and then it’s nice to get some help with new exercises. I will report on how I am feeling from that. Wish me Luck.

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